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Draft recommendations of the national task force on transition to digital broadcasting call for comments/input
by alice 15 Jul '07

15 Jul '07

(Apologies for cross posting) Not sure how many of you have seen/saw the public notice call for comments on the draft recommendations of the national task force on transition to digital broadcasting? see: http://www.cck.go.ke/html/publicnotices.asp?newsid=222&area=&type= the notice is calling for comments/input on the draft report on or before the 24th of July 2007 The switch to digital broadcasting systems will allow us to enjoy multiple broadcasting services, improved video and audio quality as well as greater spectrum efficiency, the notice says in part. For those interested especially media sector, please have a look and ensure that our views/comments and input are submitted. best alice

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ICT Bill - wish list, Day 4 of 4
by Alex Gakuru 13 Jul '07

13 Jul '07

Dear Listers and Listeners, Thank you for stating a wish or two, online or off line and your unending passion of technology, communication, and information. We are concluding this matter today to compile our Monday's presentation. Unless there is a burning wish still unsaid, permit Walu and I to compile the Wish List. Sincerely, Alex & Walubengo(shortly logging out off the Wish Listing session) ____________________________________________________________________________________ Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate in the Yahoo! Answers Food & Drink Q&A. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545367

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ICT Bill - wish list, Day 4 of 4.
by John Walubengo 13 Jul '07

13 Jul '07

here's another gem from the past on the ICT bill...a summary of proceedings. KICTANET ICT BILL ANALYSIS WORKSHOP HELD ON FRIDAY, 16TH JUNE 2006 AT THE JACARANDA HOTEL walu. ...and with that I have officially ran down on ICT wishes. Probably not, one more, I finally wish that wishes were horses then we could all fly {-by the way I have never understood what the Englishman had in mind with this phrase, but i like the way it sounds ;-)} ____________________________________________________________________________________ Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news, photos & more. http://mobile.yahoo.com/go?refer=1GNXIC

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link to KC amendment bill
by Rebecca Wanjiku 13 Jul '07

13 Jul '07

here is the link to the documents and a critique follows below http://africa.rights.apc.org/index.shtml?apc=he_1&x=5077882 Communications ( Amendment ) Bill 2007 This section changes the name of the Act, introduces new definitions, ICT policy development and promulgation , governance of the sector and constitution of the regulator , fines for contravention of the act Some areas that warrant attention are - policy formulation in the ICT sector . ICT stakeholders participated in the ICT formulation process for the first time in 2006 and now have a sense of ownership to that policy. This is as should be because the government strategy is to use the private sector to drive growth . The proposed clause 5 fails to take into account the lessons learned from the policy formulation process and locks out all other stakeholders in policy formulation - governance - Minister can appoint unlimited number of the board members to the CCK board because the operative language for all appointments in clause 6 is .. at least one --- . No advantage can be demonstrated. All other regulators have an upper limit on the board members who range from 5 to 9 members. Secondly , almost all others have no government officers to avoid conflict of interest where government has shareholding in operators and in any case the regulator implements policy promulgated by the government thirdly all the board appointments are heavily tilted to the supply side and only one appointee will represent the consumer side These concerns were pointed out by KICTANET but have not taken on board Muriuki Mureithi Colleagues As you are aware the Kenya Government has at last published the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill 2007 . The purpose of the Bill published on May 17th , 2007 ( world telecommunications day) is to amend Kenya Communications Act 1998 . The structure of the bill as a follows; Clause 1 - 14 - change of name, new definitions, ICT policy development and promulgation , governance of the sector and constitution of the regulator , fines for contravention of the act Clause 15 - introduces part IVA on broadcasting services - regulation , licensing and revocation , and promotion of local content Clause 16 -29 - enhances penalties of the contravention of the Act, reduce the duration of notice of a grant of licence, refusal to grant or modification, exclude certain classes in the notice of grant of licence Clause 30 . introduces part VIA on information technology - legal recognition of electronic communications, electronic records and electronic transactions , offences . introduces part VIB universal service fund - establishment and operationalisation . introduces part VIC Fair competition and equal treatment - definition of dominant operator , investigation of unfair treatment clause 31 introduces miscellaneous provisions on National communications secretariat, establishment of the advisory councils ( content and universal service), action in the occurrence of an emergency, use of information by an operator, service to CCK etc clause 33 introduces two schedules . fourth schedule - operation of advisory councils - content and advisory . fifth schedule - transitional provisions and proposes to repeal other acts - Kenya broadcasting act, penal code, evidence act , part VII electronic records To understand the implication of the Bill , you need to study the Kenya Communications Act 1998 which is being repealed and the Bill itself . Once enacted the governing law will be information and Communications Act and will have far reaching implications in the sector for the next decade or so. it is therefore important for stakeholders to study the document. KICTAnet facilitated a review of the Kenya Communications Act 1998 last year using the a draft bill prepared by the Ministry of Infocom and developed a report supported by the stakeholders. This document made a number of proposals which were presented to the Permanent Secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo. Some of the proposals have been included in the Bill As this Bill awaits discussion in parliament , KICTANet wants to facilitate an informed debate on the Bill , these comments are intended to support the evolution of a law to make Kenya effective user of ICT for development .I invite you to read the Kenya Communications Act 1998, the Kenya Communications ( Amendment) Bill 2007 and the proposals by KICTANET as a resource for your comments . The Act and the Bill are available at the government printer and meanwhile we are making arrangements to scan have all documents hosted in a website for ease of access by end of Wednesday . We start the online discussion on Thursday 7th and will start with Clause 1-14 and follow the sequence . In the meantime , we welcome any comments on the structure and the process of online discussion between today and Wednesday 6th Regards Muriuki Mureithi From: Harry Hare [mailto:harry@africanedevelopment.org] Sent: 12 June 2007 12:09 To: mureithi(a)summitstrategies.co.ke Cc: 'KICTanet Committee' Subject: RE: [committee] KC amendment bill Dear MM, You know how we operate in terms of reading documents! I would propose that you pick out the contentious clauses and sections of the bill and invite debate on the same. This way you would probably generate interest. Some of these clauses were outlined in Mucherus email of last weekdefinition of broadcasting, licensing of domain names etc. My interest however is in section 89-98 of the bill is was partly *borrowed* from the UNCITRAL Model Law on eCommerce of 1998. There are significant changes in the text that the said law has undergone through the various UNCITRAL Conventions and the UNCITRAL Model Law on eSignatures of 2001. It would be interesting to benchmark that section with the available text. I notice that they have left out some sections of the 1998 model law and this could pose danger in terms of interpretation of the law if it was a quick cut and paste job. One of the notable omissions (as far im concerned) for instance is the definition of electronic signatures which is found in the model law. The draft bill does recognize electronic signatures but is silent on what they are, this could cause serious interpretation problems. In the model law, the electronic signatures are defines and goes ahead to specify the validity of electronic signatureswhat I dont understand is why the drafters left out this crucial section of the law. Kindest regards Harry Tel. 254 720 318 925 blog:http://beckyit.blogspot.com/ --------------------------------- Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news, photos & more. _______________________________________________ committee mailing list committee(a)kictanet.or.ke http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/committee Tel. 254 720 318 925 blog:http://beckyit.blogspot.com/ --------------------------------- Choose the right car based on your needs. Check out Yahoo! Autos new Car Finder tool. _______________________________________________ committee mailing list committee(a)kictanet.or.ke http://kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/committee

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monthly forum on july 19th, Jacaranda
by Rebecca Wanjiku 13 Jul '07

13 Jul '07

the monthly forum will take place next week on thursday at jacaranda, 3pm please plan to attend and add your voice, regards Tel. 254 720 318 925 blog:http://beckyit.blogspot.com/ --------------------------------- Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games.

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[Fwd: [governance] the Apple iPhone rort]
by alice 12 Jul '07

12 Jul '07

Not sure how many of you have been following the Apple iPhone hype. This message is from the global civil society Internet governance list that is discussing the same issue re; mobile phone companies and locking consumers. Note the iPhone is only available through AT&T best alice -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [governance] the Apple iPhone rort Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:56:42 -0700 (PDT) From: David Goldstein <goldstein_david(a)yahoo.com.au> Reply-To: governance(a)lists.cpsr.org,David Goldstein <goldstein_david(a)yahoo.com.au> To: Governance Mailing List <governance(a)lists.cpsr.org> Hi all, I'd put this posting below on my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - and thought I'd post it here and see what the response was. It's based on an article in The Guardian today that makes a few more points on the new must-have iPhone. Well, must have only for those who are slaves to marketing hype. It makes points that have been made before. To have an iPhone one must agree to a contract with AT&T, previously described as one of the worst mobile phone service providers in the US. So if you want an iPhone, and you are already contracted to another company, you have to terminate that contract with the related fees that involves. Ben Scott’s article also notes “if you are on a family plan, you may have to pay a separate fee to terminate all of your family's phones.” And there’s the point that that AT&T doesn’t offer full coverage in more than a dozen states. Now, the real point the article makes I’d not thought of, and relevant to this list, is that the “practice of tying users to one provider is unique to the wireless world. Cable TV providers can't tell you what kind of TV to buy. And regular phone service will work on any phone you can find at your favorite electronics store. In the latter case, that's because there is a longstanding set of laws that guarantee consumer choice.” In the USA, at least, this is “called the ‘Carterfone’ rules, these laws make it so you can use any device you want - phone, headset, fax machine or dial-up modem - on your telephone network, so long as it doesn't harm the network.” The article then says, “But it gets worse: phone companies don't just hold the iPhone captive; they also routinely cripple features on handsets (like Wi-Fi, games, audio and video) so that you can only access their ‘preferred’ content. They also limit access to the network, despite marketing ‘unlimited access’. And they reserve the right to boot you off the network if you do almost anything they don't like.” “This kind of ‘blocking and locking’ behavior doesn't stop you from accessing the internet, but it does shape your experience and undermine the open, level playing field that consumers have come to expect online. The iPhone is simply the highest-profile example of a wireless internet market that is drifting further and further away from the free and open internet we've all come to expect. “The only solution to this problem is a political one. Decisions that legislators and regulators in Washington make now will determine what the internet looks like in the future. The US Congress is holding a hearing this week - call it the iPhone hearing - to discuss the new technology and its impact on consumer choice.” So all this, and combined with the rort of having to send your phone to Apple just so you can exchange the battery, and other lock-ins, I’d hope smart people would boycott the iPhone. Even if it’s just to somehow enable consumer choice and stop the drift away from a “free and open internet”. For the article that got me thinking about this post, see http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ben_scott/2007/07/free_the_iphone.html Cheers David --------- David Goldstein address: 4/3 Abbott Street COOGEE NSW 2034 AUSTRALIA email: Goldstein_David @yahoo.com.au phone: +61 418 228 605 (mobile); +61 2 9665 5773 (home) "Every time you use fossil fuels, you're adding to the problem. Every time you forgo fossil fuels, you're being part of the solution" - Dr Tim Flannery ____________________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo!7 Mail has just got even bigger and better with unlimited storage on all webmail accounts. http://au.docs.yahoo.com/mail/unlimitedstorage.html ____________________________________________________________ You received this message as a subscriber on the list: governance(a)lists.cpsr.org To be removed from the list, send any message to: governance-unsubscribe(a)lists.cpsr.org For all list information and functions, see: http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance

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Telkom’s growth is stifled by fraudsters colluding with staff
by Mike Theuri 12 Jul '07

12 Jul '07

This article appeared in 2005, but it becomes very relevant when it appears that there is a sudden and urgent rush to quietly privatize TKL by selling it to foreigners, while "restructuring and preparing" TKL for that process at taxpayers expense, a tax burden that future generations of Kenyans will still be paying with nothing to show for. The problems that TKL has are self created, they can be fixed and TKL should not be sold at such a throw away price that is hardly sufficient to cover the debt that has been and which additionally is likely to be transferred to the taxpayer. For those reading it is now 4 years to date since the secret dossiers mentioned in the article were written and no prosecution or conviction has taken place: http://www.eastandard.net/archives/sunday/hm_news/news.php?articleid=14743 Self-inflicted woes Telkom's growth is stifled by fraudsters colluding with staff as competition bites, writes Gordon Opiyo. Top officials of Telkom Kenya are involved in fleecing the cash-strapped company of billions of shillings, according to independent investigations by the Communications Commission of Kenya. According to confidential reports prepared by the regulator, Telkom Kenya failed to take advantage of the five-year local and international fixed line calls monopoly due to collusion between the employees and an international syndicate of phone companies. In the estimation of then Transport and Communications minister John Michuki, Telkom had lost over Sh120 billion in the previous seven years due to these leakages. Yet the minister failed to stop the syndicates, and appeared to have acquiesced to them or become hostage. The company now has to grapple with tough competition after the end of the exclusivity status in June, last year, with about 10,000 employees set to lose their jobs through an impending retrenchment exercise. While Telkom Managing Director John Waweru says the company has nothing to hide and is willing to co-operate with any investigators, indications are that there are still too many untouchables fleecing the parastatal. Information and Communications Permanent Secretary, Mr James Rege, plays the same refrain: "We have an open-door policy and will ensure that any official found to be involved in any improper deal takes responsibility for his or her action." Yet both officials have before them detailed reports of how the company lost the opportunity to take full control of the local and international calls market, despite having the advantage of being a monopoly. The decline was rapid, with countrywide subscriptions to Telkom Kenya's switchboard falling by 14.7 per cent to 280,000 lines in June 2004 from 328,358 the year before. And whereas international calls used to generate 80 per cent of the total revenue a decade ago, the figure has dropped to about 30 per cent. Investigation After the raid on Data Global Limited Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Kiraitu Murungi ordered the CCK to investigate the magnitude of the fraud and how it was perpetrated. The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission also requested a similar brief. According to the reports, Telkom Kenya's revenue declined because of fraudsters adopting new technologies for transmitting international calls, and its failure to change fast enough. Fraudsters, with the help of Telkom Kenya employees, managed to get into the lucrative international call market by offering cheaper calls. Among the methods identified by the regulator's investigators were Voice Over Internet Protocol and the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT). These technologies make it possible to make calls at a fraction of the cost of the traditional methods that Telkom Kenya used. Apart from the technology, Telkom entered into suspicious contracts with three companies – CDR, N-Tel and Zantel – which, according to the CCK, have the equipment to compress call traffic so that a small transmission capacity can handle more telephone lines than a normal Telkom system. The companies entered into agreements with the parastatal to terminate international calls from other countries at a much lower cost — obviously to the detriment of Telkom. For instance, a call that comes to the Telkom network from abroad is terminated at $0.2 per minute, but those that come through the other companies are terminated at $0.06 cents per minute. Worse for Telkom when the calls come to mobile phones because it loses Sh14.50 per minute. "Going by the statistics of the previous financial year (2002), where Telkom Kenya terminated over 17 million international call minutes, this amounts to a loss of over Sh178 million," says the CCK report to the Kenya Anti Corruption Authority. The CCK questions the manner in which Telkom awarded the contracts to the three companies, contravening three conditions laid down in its licence – condition 18 on fair trading, condition 25 of informing the regulator of joint ventures and condition 26 that gave it exclusivity in the provision of international calls. In other words, Telkom gave up its exclusive rights to operate international calls to the three companies through the backdoor. Although the regulator says that they have not been able to get the real owners of the companies, investigations by The Sunday Standard have established that the firms were all owned by influential members of the previous administration and a former director of Telkom. What is interesting is that although the file on the fraud investigation in Telkom has been open at the Kenya Anti Corruption Authority since 2003, no action has been taken to stop the illegal operations. Instead, most of the officers investigating the have either been transferred or recalled to the Criminal Investigation Department. In December, last year, Dr John Mutonyi, assistant director in charge of investigations told The Sunday Standard that that his men were still investigating the matter. However, when contacted for the past two weeks, Dr Mutonyi failed to respond to our calls. The CCK report to Kiraitu says: "The kind of defense Telkom Kenya is giving to agreements, which are one of the biggest contributors towards the decline in its international revenue shows that individuals from Telkom Kenya are gaining from it." In an earlier interview with The Sunday Standard, Waweru had said that the contracts were signed before his management came into office and that the new team was reviewing them. The investigations also revealed that billions of shillings were lost through illegal satellite dish operators who, according to the briefs, were supported by Telkom Kenya staff to get telephone lines fixed to the local exchanges. "We suggest that an independent investigator be sought to address the problem of decline in Telkom Kenya's revenue including the illegal international traffic termination by Data Global at Lonrho House. Telkom Kenya cannot investigate itself on this matter because they appear to be abetting culprits," concludes the report. However, two years after the secret dossiers were written, no major change action has been seen.

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Morality Policing>>Censorhip Precursor
by Alex Gakuru 12 Jul '07

12 Jul '07

"Govt plans countrywide ban on smoking in public_" says http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgindex.asp. Following "trial" Urban Councils implementation success. Do such actions require City councils to give public Notice because EasyFM spoke of several arrested yesterday at Landhies Road. These guys probably do not have the luxury of radio or TV to know of snap bylaws. What will be next? Filtering your internet to "protect" you from pornography or illegalise carrying more than 1,000/= because thugs my rob you? Fishy.... ____________________________________________________________________________________ Got a little couch potato? Check out fun summer activities for kids. http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=summer+activities+for+kids&…

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is IGF a castrated version of ICANN???
by Rebecca Wanjiku 12 Jul '07

12 Jul '07

makes good reading??? ICANN San Juan 2007 After a crazed American federal prosecutor wreaked havoc on the Puerto Rican roads by wiping out on his motorcycle at 3am doing 105 mph, immobilizing traffic for ten hours on a major highway, I walked four miles on Thursday morning along the beach to the site of the ICANN meeting. I made it just in time to the Caribe Hilton for the internet governance workshop. Sure glad I caught this one. if (document.getElementById('MidArticleSlot')) document.write('\x3Cscript src="http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/adj/reg.management.4159/itdirector;'+RegExCats+GetVCs()+'pid='+RegId+';'+RegKW+'maid='+maid+';test='+test+';pf='+RegPF+';dcove=d;sz=336x280;tile=3;ord=' + rand + '?" type="text/javascript">\x3C\/script>'); In the beginning ... uh, were the critical...uh... internet resources... ahm well... we'll get back to that at the Rio conference in November. Sort of like Adam wandering around the garden labeling things, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is still working on its reason for being here. The IGF was created out of whole cloth by the UN as a kind of internationalized counterweight to perceived excessive American influence at ICANN, and yet no one in attendance, even those who participate in the IGF, are quite sure what the IGF even does - apparently it's still defining its fundamentals. A good chunk of this mercifully short session consisted of participants half-heartedly trying to define what constitute "critical internet resources" - the protection of which they've decided is essential to their core mission, and which is topic numero uno at the upcoming Rio event. The truth is really out there, right? This session in theory was about more than the IGF, but in practice it consisted mostly of a discussion about the extent to which the IGF and ICANN serve overlapping or even contradictory purposes. There seemed to be a rather diplomatic consensus that the two institutions complement each other, but after sitting through an hour of discussion on the subject, this correspondent still has absolutely no idea what the IGF actually does - or if it even has the power to do anything at all. Is it a gripe forum, kind of like those bitter websites American trademark attorneys are always trying to shut down? Is it just a glorified networking event? Who knows? If I make it to the Rio forum, I'll be sure to let everyone know. Although this topic looked appetizing on the schedule, it's clear that the IGF has a lot of work to do if it is to be considered anything more than a highly vocal yet castrated version of ICANN. Indeed, the IGF bares an uncanny resemblance to that other impotent, internationalized and highly vocal institution, the UN General Assembly. That's not to say that it does not have value - it's just the political equivalent to a visit to the therapist's office. We all need to get stuff off our chest from time to time. Tel. 254 720 318 925 blog:http://beckyit.blogspot.com/ --------------------------------- Got a little couch potato? Check out fun summer activities for kids.

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monthly forum on july 19th
by Rebecca Wanjiku 12 Jul '07

12 Jul '07

KICTANet will be holding the monthly forum next thursday july 19th the theme will be the contribution to KCA bill, the contributions will be expected to be presented to the PS before the second reading which is expected to be between 23 and 27th july, please plan to attend and fwd your contributions, which will constitute "KICTANet version" see you then... regards Tel. 254 720 318 925 blog:http://beckyit.blogspot.com/ --------------------------------- Choose the right car based on your needs. Check out Yahoo! Autos new Car Finder tool.

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